Amazon.com Review

Surpassing its popular prequel Eragon, this second volume in the Inheritance trilogy shows growing maturity and skill on the part of its very young author, who was only seventeen when the first volume was published in 2003. The story is solidly in the tradition (some might say derivative) of the classic heroic quest fantasy, with the predictable cast of dwarves, elves, and dragons--but also including some imaginatively creepy creatures of evil.

The land of Alagaesia is suffering under the Empire of the wicked Galbatorix, and Eragon and his dragon Saphira, last of the Riders, are the only hope. But Eragon is young and has much to learn, and so he is sent off to the elven forest city of Ellesmera, where he and Saphira are tutored in magic, battle skills, and the ancient language by the wise former Rider Oromis and his elderly dragon Glaedr. Meanwhile, back at Carvahall, Eragon's home, his cousin Roran is the target of a siege by the hideous Ra'zac, and he must lead the villagers on a desperate escape over the mountains. The two narratives move toward a massive battle with the forces of Galbatorix, where Eragon learns a shocking secret about his parentage and commits himself to saving his people.

The sheer size of the novel, as well as its many characters, places with difficult names, and its use of imaginary languages make this a challenging read, even for experienced fantasy readers. It is essential to have the plot threads of the first volume well in mind before beginning--the publisher has provided not only a map, but a helpful synopsis of the first book and a much-needed Language Guide. But no obstacles will deter the many fans of Eragon from diving headfirst into this highly-awaited fantasy. (Ages 12 and up) --Patty Campbell

Meet Author Christopher Paolini
Christopher Paolini’s abiding love of fantasy and science fiction inspired him to begin writing his debut novel, Eragon, when he graduated from high school at age 15.

"Writing is the heart and soul of my being. It is the means through which I bring my stories to life. There is nothing like putting words on a page and knowing that they will summon certain emotions and reactions from the reader. In my writing, I strive for a lyrical beauty somewhere between Tolkien at his best and Seamus Heaney’s translation of Beowulf." --Christopher Paolini

Paolini talks more about the series, and about what inspires him in this video clip.
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The Eragon/Eldest Boxed Set

Want to learn more about the series? Check out our review of Eragon: Here's a great big fantasy that you can pull over your head like a comfy old sweater and disappear into for a whole weekend. Christopher Paolini began Eragon when he was just 15, and the book shows the influence of Tolkien, of course, but also Terry Brooks, Anne McCaffrey, and perhaps even Wagner in its traditional quest structure and the generally agreed-upon nature of dwarves, elves, dragons, and heroic warfare with magic swords. Read more

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Learn the Lingo
Our quickie pronunciation guide will help you get to know some of the names and places in the Inheritance series.

Ajihad

AH-zhi-hod The Leader of the Varden

Argetlam

ARE-jet-lahmElven word to describe Dragon Riders meaning "silver hand"

Arya

AR-ee-uhA powerful elf who is both beautiful and a master swordswoman

Eragon

EHR-uh-gahnA Dragon Rider from Carvahall

Ra-zac

RAA-zackEvil creatures

Saphira

suh-FEAR-uhEragon’s dragon

*Art copyright © 2004 John Jude Palencar

From School Library Journal

Grade 5 Up–Eragon and his dragon, Saphira, have survived the battle at Tronjheim, but their challenges are not over. Galbatorix, the corrupt emperor, still rules Alagaesia and is looking for them. The magically bonded pair must help the rebellious Varden regroup after their leader is slain. Eragon helps deal with the resulting diplomatic complexities and then leaves for Du Weldenvarden, the home of the Elves, in order to finish his training as a Dragon Rider. Meanwhile, his cousin Roran must unite the small town of Carvahall as it is battered by Galbatorix's forces, including the nasty Ra'zac. The story alternates between Eragon and Saphira and their political maneuvering and Roran and his more traditional adventure over land and sea. Paolini provides a worthy companion to Eragon (Knopf, 2003), though it does not stand alone (a summary of the first book will be included in the final edition). The plot–indeed, most of the fantasy conventions–is heavily inspired by Tolkien, McCaffrey, and especially George Lucas. The momentum of the narrative is steady and consistent: a problem presents itself and is neatly (and conveniently) solved before the next one arises, making it appealing to some adventure-quest fantasy fans and runescape.com players. Eragon's journey to maturity is well handled. He wrestles earnestly with definitions for good and evil, and he thoughtfully examines the question of good at what price.While there's nothing particularly original here, the book will find its fan-base.–Sarah Couri, New York Public Library
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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 12 and up
  

• Paperback: 704 pages

• Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers; Trade Paperback Edition edition (March 13, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0375840400
• ISBN-13: 978-0375840401
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 1.5 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1,602 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,407 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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32 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Paolini's Age is Apparent, June 15, 2006

By 

D. Wise "fantasy lover" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Eldest (Inheritance, Book 2) (Hardcover)

After reading this story I felt compelled to write how unsatisfied I was. I will quickly reiterate what others have already said. Eldest is derivative of so many other fantasy books, and there is no question Paolini has taken giant chunks out of Tolkein, McCaffrey, Lucas, Dungeons and Dragons, and probably many other fantasy stories I have not read. But I do not neccesarily mind that. I've read many books that have created their own compelling worlds using generic fantasy formulas, and have fallen in love with them. But this world does not have anything at all that I have not already seen. Elves living in forests? Read the hundreds of Dragonlance stories, Tolkein. Dwarves in mountains? Ditto. It's just so frustrating. But having already read Eragon, I knew all of this so I was not surprised that the world was so familiar.

While his derivative plot and world might bother some, I found many other things much more bothersome to read. I do not mean to attack home schooling, in fact I think it is a wonderful thing, but I question how much of it affected Paolini's writing. His descriptions of the world are interesting, in fact, at times even lyrical. I know he was immersed in a wonderful world to explore as he grew up. But I wonder how much social interaction he might have had. His descriptions of people seem more caricatures than actual people, and at times the descriptions are incredibly immature. The scene where he meets the council of the Varden rings out as particularly irritating. Paolini constantly fixates on the bosoms of one of the council members. I do not know if he thinks this is humorous, but it's a good sign of his immaturity. And if he were skillful enough of a writer he could perhaps have made it humorous which I believe was his intent, but it instead gave me the impression that Paolini has had very little interaction with the opposite sex. The same goes with his writing in regards to love. It is wonderfully romantic in a naive sort of way.

One other major qualm I had with the story is more personal, and probably nothing that anyone really has any problem with or even picked up. But I can't stand it so I will bring it up anyways. I hate, HATE, the depiction of the elves. I personally think Paolini shaped elves after Asians. The elves have squinty eyes, stern and serious mannerisms, and they try not to offend others; they are exotic. These are all stereotypes of Asians. He makes the elves seem so foreign, much in the manner Asians are seen as perpetual foreigners in America, and while I highly doubt Paolini intends to be racist, I think his depiction of the elves can be percieved as highly offensive.

But back to his story. There is one more thing that was a literary travesty. It is of a battle early on in the story when Roran is fighting the Ra'zac's army. Roran slices off a soldiers fingers, and the soldier, fingerless and bloody mind you, states something along the lines of, "Perhaps I should have worn a shield today." And then he is killed. I have no idea what was going through Paolini's mind. Did it make me laugh out loud? Yes because such a stupid line inserted in the middle of an intense fight makes me wonder if anyone editted this thing. No soldier EVER is going to be retrospective when they get their fingers chopped off. It was one of the stupidest things I've read. It was memorable for all the wrong reasons.

Finally, once again reiterating what others have said, Paolini must not lecture us. Trying to convince us eating animals is morally wrong and to tell everyone that aetheism is the way to go is offensive, and unnecesarily assertive. Maybe, which I think was more his intention, he could have gone about trying to illustrate what he finds divisive about religion. This is not a childrens story. I don't think its focus is for children even though Paolini believes it to be. The vocabulary is complicated, though not as bad as people have said, the story is violent, absurdly violent for children in my opinion, and the audience is much more for those who know what a +3 Sword of Dancing is.

I feel any values that Paolini is trying to impart to younger readers are not well thought out. I feel his attempts to grasp right and wrong are shallow. So shallow. He begins to question the absolute values of good and evil, but in the end, there is an ultimate evil in the Empire, and Roran and Eragon will rise up to be the ultimate good. I just can't recommend this book to too many people. Maybe a book you get at the library, but to pay for it seems like a mistake when there are many better and more deserving books. I'll say that if there was a 2 1/2 stars I would give it that rating. He does have glimpses of being a fine writer, but right now hes insane, and ridiculously pompous to believe he can even compare himself to Tolkein. "May the Force be with you..." wait, no, I mean "May your swords stay sharp" when you are making your decision to buy this book.

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14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Hated it!, September 13, 2005

By 

A.G. "A+M Aggie" (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Eldest (Inheritance, Book 2) (Hardcover)

I read some of the reviews of Eldest and keep shaking my head......shaking my head. People not only disliked this book......they hated it as much as I did. AND anyone saying people hated it because its a Tolkien ripoff ain't paying attention. People hated it on account of it sucks. Paolini would take 8 pages to say a character passed wind. I won't be reading the next one!

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48 of 59 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars I seriously feel like egging Paolini sometimes, January 10, 2006

By 

aspeth - See all my reviews

This review is from: Eldest (Inheritance, Book 2) (Hardcover)

Ok. First i have to talk about the author, Christopher Paolini. I would have respected him for his work, if not for the arrogant personality he displays all the time and the media on his work. What is with all this? The Inheritance novels are mediocre. There is really no genius about it. Just beacause he is nineteen is no reason to call him a teen Tolkien, or to call his books absolutely incredible. Say, pretty nice work for a teen. And that should be it. No need to proclaim him a genius, when he isnt. His writing has improved slightly, but it is still awkward and tedious and as the author himself, he is a sure arrogant guy, comparing his works with Tolkien and Seamus Heaney. The very nerve! I would have respected him if he had been a modest guy, but a self-proclaimed genius is far too much.

This and the fact that at every opportunity, he chimes in that he graduated at the age of fifteen. Excuse me, this does not mean that he is oustanding in academics. HE IS HOMESCHOOLED, He did not go to some public school. Not to insult homeschooled kids, but this means that he could have been a C student, for all we know. All his parents had to do was speed him through schoolwork and proclaim him finished when he wsa fifteen. If i was homeschooled, i could easily do the same thing. We do not have actual proof that he is a great scholar. I mean, if it was fact that he gotten a fifteen hundred on his SATs, or he has been accepted by an Ivy League, like Alicia Keys did when SHE was fifteen, then i would admire him. But we dont. And when i hear of people clamoring over his "graduating from the age of fifteeen" and his "genius works" i am highly irritated. Paolini likes to boast of it himself, calling himself "from a child who hated to read to a man who graduated from the age of fifteen" First, so what. I absolutely loathe math, but i excell at it. i hate science, but i earn A's in my bio class. And shouldnt he say "from a kid who hated to read to a guy who WROTE A NOVEL"? That would make a lot more sense. And the fact that he used to hate to read! That lowers my respect a lot.
Oh, and the fact that he says that he brings his story to life. Excuse me, Mr. Paolini but not really. The few cases in which i could imagine the scene was, for a strange reason, straight from the Lord of the Ring movies. Weird, huh?

oh, by the way, for the eragon lovers claim that all the bad reviewers are jealous. Excuse me, but when you say something like,"this was a bad movie", does that mean you're jealous of the producers or something? Puh-lease. And people claim that since all fanstasies are similar, paolini copying is not a crime. But there is a difference between similar and PURE PLAGIARIZING like paolini does from LOTR and Star Wars. And i dont even mind that as much as the writing style. i mean, some novels are about such boring subjects. what turns them ito great books is the style in which is is written. THAT IS WHAT THE INHERITANCE SERIES LACKS. A GOOD WRITING STYLE. I mean, if it was well-written, it would have brought up my rating a couple stars up, even. But as it isnt...

oh and i read some reviews in which some writer-wannabe said that people who critizised the books were jealous that paolini got the book published by his parents who own a publishing comp. Um, please. WE'RE NOT ALL WRITERS, JUST READERS! our priorities lie somewhere else! My god.

So lets get on with the book. As i said in my title, Eldest is an improvement after that utterly disgraceful novel called Eragon. SPOILERS COMING. Ajihad dies suddenly in like the first five pages. His death and the suddeness of the ambush on him is poorly written with awkward construction. Then his daughter Nasuada suceeds him as leader of the Varden, a small group of rebels, sworn enemies of the Empire.

Before we move on, i should warn the reader that the general frame is similar to Star Wars. There is an elite group of warriors, long gone, called the Riders, kinda like the Jedi, One of them, an unusually talented yet dangerous boy called Galbatorix (cough Vader) rises to power, destroys all the riders and takes control of the land called Alagaesia and makes it into an empire. Then a poor farm boy of no importance called Eragon (sounds like aragorn but is actually luke skywalker) finds a stone which is a dragon egg. The empire starts hunting for him and a wierd old guy in his village takes eragon on a journey. the guy himself knows a lot of magic and things about riders and then soon dies. seems that he used to b a powerful Rider. (aka obi-Wan Kenobi). And then the farm boy rescues the rebel princess in imprisonment, and then becomes a hero.

And blah blah blah. Of course Paolini has ripped off a lot from Lord of the Rings with his names and lands and creatures like the mining, underground dwarves, who are on shaky land with humans and the graceful, mysterious, powerful, immortal and beautiful elves, ruled by a beautiful, mysterious queen, and they hide in their enchanted forests and do nothing against the evil dude. Arwen is Arya, who helps Eragon and even matches Arwen's appearance. Eragon falls in love with her (aragorn and arwen love affair cough). In the first book, Paolini also ripped off LOTR the part when sauron is defeated and there's a sort of sonic boom (same thing happened when Eragon killed the evil shade Durza)

Well anyway, Murtagh has been killed and so has the twins, or at least it seems so. But by the blunt disposal of them by the author, it's pre-tty obvious that they are alive, since they are major characters and eragon expresses his grief for his companion in maybe two sentences for the entire book.

he goes off to Ellesmera to learn further magic from the elves, especially a crippled and retired rider called Oromis (obviously Yoda) and his handicapped dragon tutors Saphira.

Eragon flies into rages with an elf who is disgusted with eragon (i dont blame the elf) and pines and sobs about the cold arya, who is less than thrilled about his feelings for her. The author gives some political reasons why this is so, but in my frank opinion, who would go for Eragon, the loser and ugly guy that he is? Anyhow, Eragon learns what a vegetarian is, and has ridiculous philosiphical conversations with his mentor,

and meanwhile, his cousin rowan is having problems of his own.

Rowan comes back to the farm to find his father dead and his cousin eragon missing. He and his girlfriend Katrina are hesitant about marriage and the Ra-zac have come back and they want Rowan. After several skirmishes with the local villagers, Carvahall altogether declare war and after death and CANNIBALISM (squeamish ppl, beware) they escape across the sea for Surda and a better life. Katrina is captured and Rowan decides to kill people with a hammer.(WTF?!?!) Then after many tears and hammerblows they reach their destintaion. (one more ripoff is when there are these flying black creatures flying above them in the forest and screeching in this horrible, unnatural way that causes the villagers to moan)

Eragon, after another failed attempt at wooing Arya and just about transformed into an elf by them, he hurries back to the Varden just in time for the big battle with Surda this time fighting along them, and some Kull who resent Galbatorix. Of course they win, only to his horror,

SPOLIERS BEWARE:

"I...AM...YOUR...FATHER!!!". ok not quite. he finds out that murtagh is actually his brother and galbatorix's right-hand Rider, Morzan, slain by Brom years ago, (obi-wan and anakin skywalker duel in episode three) is his father. THis is pretty much obvious in the first book if you put the clues together. To make it worse, Murtagh is Galbatorix's slave and he is forced to obey him by ancient language-oaths, which mean that you cannot break it. If this werent enough, Murtagh, despite all of Eragon's training and longer experience, is far more powerful than his little brother. Because frankly, Murtagh has been trained by Galbotorix. And he is now a Rider. Yep the second egg has hatched for Murtagh and Thorn, the new dragon, bears a rider. Who is Murtagh.

so the battle of the burning plains or whatever is EXACTLY like the battle of minas tirith in lord of the rings. people are fighting on these desolate plains. all seems lost when ta-da, people show up and help them fight (here paolini substitutes the Rohan people for the dwarves) then ahhh! a big dragon swoops down from the sky and kills a king! the dragon's rider is dressed in steel, including these little steel-finger gloves, and when the dragon is brought down, the rider gets down from the dragon to fight by hand!! totally plagiarizing.

and let me guess. in the next book, ergaon will be brought face-to-face with Galbatorix. Ergaon will be losing, dying, when ta-da! Galbatorix's right hand man Murtagh will become good and help Ergaon kill Galbatorix. Yep. I bet you that will happen. MY GOD PAOLINI PLEASE STOP COPYING FROM STAR WARS AND LORD OF THE RINGS. JUST A SLIGHT EFFORT. Pretty please?

And i leave it to the readers to shake their heads exasperately at Eragon, who is as much as a jerk and awkwardly nobel as ever. here is an example.

Ergaon: "What is your name?"
Boy: "Jarsha,"
Ergaon: "That is a good name."
Boy: Umm, thanks.Here's a message from the council.
Eragon: "You have carried your message well. You should be proud of yourself.
Boy beams and hurries away.

see what i mean? my god, it wasn't like the boy travelled like ten miles or anything, he walked like maybe fifty steps. That line was so corny i nearly cried in disbelief that that had actually been put down on paper.

And you will grimace with disgust at the even more awkward poetry Paolini writes,... Read more ›

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